According to Bitcoin Magazine, on May 6, according to the web3 radar public account, in August last year, the Hangzhou police issued an emergency warning, which attracted the attention of the entire network: a woman was defrauded of more than 19 million yuan.
Everyone knows the first half of the story: Ms. Song met Mr. Wang online, and at his instigation, she invested in a certain platform and bought gold many times, handing it over to strangers who came to collect it. By the time she realized what was happening, she had lost more than 19 million yuan.
Recently, I heard the second half of the story at the Hangzhou Criminal Investigation Brigade: more than 10 million yuan of the 19 million yuan that was defrauded was successfully recovered. The policeman who recovered the money was named Zhang Huaicai. He is an expert in analyzing funds related to Internet crimes at the Hangzhou Criminal Investigation Brigade, and has been dealing with virtual currencies for the past two years.
Detective playing with virtual currency
“Virtual currency is a kind of currency that is initiated by non-financial institutions and circulates within a specific range. All transactions and storage are based on a decentralized network. It is highly concealed and difficult to be regulated and traced…”
Zhang Huaicai opened the virtual currency software on his mobile phone and gave a live demonstration while providing popular science information.
In 2021, Hangzhou police received reports from multiple people: they were defrauded by online cryptocurrency investment. The person in charge of the case was Zhang Huaicai.
"This is a typical investment and financial fraud. The scammers tricked the victims into buying virtual currency and then "invested" on a certain platform to evade supervision..." Zhang Huaicai had no idea where to start when he first encountered virtual currency. The police invited several experts who studied virtual currency to assist in the analysis. It took a lot of effort to sort out all the capital flows on the platform. In the next half month, Zhang Huaicai traveled to many places in other provinces and arrested more than ten criminal suspects.
Since that year, virtual currency has appeared more and more frequently in telecommunications fraud cases. Many fraudsters have induced victims to "invest" in virtual currency platforms in the name of "cryptocurrency speculation", or exchanged the cash withdrawn and gold purchased by victims into virtual currency for money laundering.
After experiencing repeated interruptions in fund tracing, Zhang Huaicai felt that the gap in the field of virtual currency must be filled in future anti-fraud work. In this way, he fell into the "pit" of virtual currency. He downloaded various software on his mobile phone, bought tutorials on how to use virtual currency online, and joined dozens of "coin friends groups". Gradually, his understanding of virtual currency became deeper and deeper.
Talking money flow
How was Ms. Song’s more than 10 million yuan recovered?
After receiving the report from Ms. Song, the Hangzhou police quickly launched an analysis and investigation and soon identified a money laundering gang headquartered in a certain city.
This gang has a "car team" that drives back and forth to many places in China every day to take orders. In order to evade supervision, the scammers let the victims spend money to buy gold and wait for the "car team" drivers to pick it up. After the drivers took the gold, they quickly sold it and exchanged it for virtual currency, which was then transferred to overseas gangs. Hangzhou police rushed to the local area and arrested this money laundering gang. Also seized were the gang's virtual currency accounts.
Zhang Huaicai analyzed the flow of these accounts and found clues pointing to the same upstream party. After several months of continuous work, more than 10 million yuan was successfully recovered.
"The flow of funds speaks volumes." In his opinion, analyzing virtual currency is not just about analyzing the flow of funds, but more importantly, it is about a comprehensive analysis of the account owner. What is the identity? Victim or suspect? What are the trading habits? What are the characteristics of the trading equipment and environment? Is there anything abnormal about the trading object? ... Once this series of questions are clarified, it is not difficult to find a "breakthrough" in the case.
Some time ago, a young man hurried to a police station in Hangzhou to report to the police, claiming that he was robbed while trading virtual currency with someone, "The person who robbed me and the person who bought the currency are the same person."
The young man claimed to be a currency dealer, selling virtual currency. Someone approached him to do a face-to-face transaction. They agreed that the money would be exchanged for the goods. But as soon as he transferred the currency, the other party ran away with hundreds of thousands of cash.
Virtual currency? Face-to-face transaction? What is the transaction process? The police officer who was taking the statement was confused, but he felt something was wrong, so he asked Zhang Huaicai for help.
Zhang Huaicai only took a look at the young man's virtual currency account address and flipped through the transaction flow, and soon had the answer in his mind. He winked at the police and summoned the young man.
Later investigation revealed that the young man was a driver responsible for withdrawing money for a money laundering gang. This time, his boss tricked him and even teamed up with others to play "black eating black".
Every crossover is at the forefront
Zhang Huaicai has been a police officer for 18 years. He has crossed borders several times and always played in "high-end games".
Zhang Huaicai was born in the 1980s. He originally wanted to be a lawyer, but was admitted to the forensic major.
In 2007, after graduating from university, he came to the Hangzhou Criminal Investigation Detachment and became a field forensic doctor.
A year later, DNA testing technology developed rapidly and became the forefront of criminal technology. The Hangzhou DNA laboratory expanded rapidly. Zhang Huaicai, who had made a name for himself in the forensic field, joined the team of Li Youying, an outstanding national policeman and criminal investigation expert in Zhejiang Province. He followed a group of "big names" in the police force to extract DNA in the laboratory day and night, and participated in solving many major cases.
In 2017, the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau established an investigation center to combat new types of crimes, and he switched from a DNA forensic scientist to an investigator specializing in cash flow analysis.
"On the first day of work, my boss gave me a bank card statement and asked me to do a cash flow analysis."
He explored little by little, and his professional field expanded from genetic analysis to bank bill analysis, and then to virtual currency.
Today, Zhang Huaicai is also an anti-fraud instructor for the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau. He leads a research and analysis team of more than 20 people in the city and teaches experience in capital chain analysis.
Jin Yan, deputy captain of the Sixth Brigade of the Criminal Investigation Detachment, described Zhang Huaicai as follows: He was an excellent forensic doctor with strong research ability. After transitioning to a new "track", he was able to adapt quickly and grow into a backbone.
Zhang Huaicai said that whether being a forensic doctor or doing cash flow analysis, both are at the forefront of the criminal investigation front, and there are many similarities, "looking for clues from the details and fighting wits and courage with the suspects."
